Heerathetrack starts the second stage of his career, under Rules, in Lingfield's sixteen furlong Novice Hurdle, the fourth race on their card that happily survived the early morning inspection; the ground is reasonable Good to Soft, Soft in places, which should be fine for him although you might think about he will cope with proper job Winter ground going forward. It is difficult to predict how he will get on this afternoon; he is a horse with, over seven and eight furlongs, intrinsically more ability than he showed on the flat during 2023 and he has schooled decently but this afternoon will show how he copes with some potentially reasonably class novice hurdlers and will help inform us of where he ought to go gong forward; he will likely be seen to better effect once he has a mark.

No runners tomorrow or Saturday; but Queen of Steel is on course to go to Leicester on Sunday.

Just looking forward to the Spring and Summer (always an alluring prospect when the temperature is minus three, as it was a First Lot this morning) I am delighted to say that we have thirteen yearlings for next year; twelve of them are now on the website in outline and more detail will be added over the coming week or so; this link makes for happy reading! And the that link is worth keeping a glance on.